Video Game / Poker Night at the Inventory

This isn't your ordinary game of Poker.

So, a Russian mercenary, a loudmouthed luchador, a gaming webcomic writer, and a hyperactive, sociopathic lagomorph walk into a bar hosted by a retired pirate...

The Inventory: a former speakeasy founded against the possibility of an early draft of the 18th Amendment that was even more stringent than the one we know, now re-purposed as a highly exclusive club. Gaming's most iconic characters settle in here during their "downtime," when their games are powered down. It's poker night, and four of gaming's greatest characters walk in to play, about to bet everything they own for the sake of winning. Oh, and you're there, for some reason.

Poker Night at the Inventory is a crossover game from Telltale Games featuring Strong Bad, Max, Tycho and the Heavy engaging the "Player," a mysterious new challenger, in a game of Texas Hold'Em poker.

The trailer can be viewed here. It has its own wiki here.

It was followed by Poker Night 2, released in April 2013.

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The game provides examples of:

• Adjustable Censorship: There's a toggle for bleeping out Tycho's swears, but a line where Strong Bad presumably says "fucked-up shit" is always bleeped regardless of the setting. Matt Chapman later stated that he literally said "bleeped-up bleep".
• All There in the Manual: This game IS a manual for these characters (though mostly for the Heavy Weapons Guy).
• Anachronism Stew:
  • Heavy has updated from Team Fortress 2's 50s-60s stylized setting, but only updated to about the mid-80s (he listens to Huey Lewis and the News and believes Purple Rain is recent), while Strong Bad and Tycho talk over computer setups and internet sites.
  • Even then, Strong Bad thinks that Videlectrix is recent, while Tycho refers to them as the 'classics.' Of course, Strong Bad's idea of state-of-the-art technology is infamously backwards (Strong Bad thought his first computer was state-of-the-art because it had "two contrast knobs.")
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: The items you win during the bonus rounds can be used in Team Fortress 2. While they're all shiny and unique, they're statistically identical reskins to keep the game balanced. The Iron Curtain is equivalent to the default minigun, the Lugermorph is a reskin of the default pistol used by the Scout and Engineer, and the Enthusiasts' Timepiece is a reskin of the Spy's default invisibility watch. Now, most, if not all game pre-order tie-in items become random drops in Team Fortress 2 a month or so later, so they've started to have unique stats and abilities. Pre-ordering a certain game only nets you early access to the weapons, plus the aesthetic title "Genuine".
• Artificial Brilliance: This game has some splendid AI for a poker game. In fact, all four characters have unique playing patterns.
  • Max has an almost random playing pattern, as if he has absolutely no idea what he's doing or how to play poker; he gives the impression of being more interested in the cross-table kibitzing than in the actual game. Nonetheless, he's smart enough to back his luck when he suspects he's got a good hand.
  • Strong Bad's high confidence has him attempt to bluff his way through the game, stealing the pot as his high bets (or even all-ins) intimidate the players into folding to him. This makes him vulnerable to those who call his bluff, but his hubris makes it hard to tell if he actually is bluffing or if he's baiting you into the trap of a good hand.
  • The Heavy is much more conservative with his money, folding when he doesn't have what he thinks is a good hand and betting when he does; his bets are cautious in attempt to lure his opponents into adding more to the pot.
  • Tycho plays excessively cautiously early on to make sure he outlasts at least some of his opponents before playing highly aggressively, and often recklessly trying to bluff as more and more players are knocked out of the game.
  • In addition, the game actually includes facial expressions as tells requiring you to watch the other players when the hands are dealt. Some of them subtle, others are very obvious (such as Strong Bad banging his head loudly against the table when he has a VERY bad hand.)
• Artistic License – Economics: One of Winslow's possible introductions is an inflation gag: he claims that a $75 bet from 1910 would be equivalent to $10000 in 2010. In real life, it would've only been worth $1732.70 at the time of the games release.
• Art-Style Clash: All over the place with the Heavy (a cartoonishly-proportioned but otherwise semi-realistic looking human man), Strong Bad (a "stupid animal character" with a head bigger than his body), Tycho (a cel-shaded man with normal proportions but cartoonish facial features) and Max (a Funny Animal with Black Bead Eyes and teeth like a bear trap).
• Berserk Button:
  • Strong Bad whenever asked about his "boxing gloves."
    Strong Bad: THESE. ARE. MY. HANDS!
  • Heavy makes it clear multiple times that the Spy is his least favorite Team Fortress 2 character. See also This Cannot Be! below.
• Bestiality Is Depraved: Tycho can bring up his...attraction to hedgehogs and giraffes. Naturally, the others are pretty disturbed when he waxes poetic about it.
• Big "NO!": Strong Bad will occasionally let this go when he gets eliminated.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: Strong Bad brags he stole the source code for Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People from "those Telltale chumps." He constantly berates Telltale throughout the game - probably because he's had a lot of bad experiences with the developers.
• Body Horror: The Heavy's story about his vengeance against the engineer who slaughtered his [the Heavy's] teammates.
  Heavy: There's blood everywhere!
• Borrowed Catchphrase: After hearing Max's response to his favorite enemy to kill, Heavy responds with a variation of Sam's catchphrase.
  Heavy: You crack me up, little bunny.
• Bowdlerization: The Fruit Fucker from Penny Arcade appears on an unlockable table, except it's renamed as "Fruit Friend". Even if the swears are uncensored, it still appears as "Fruit Friend".
• Brick Joke: The Banang joke, which has a tendency to show up in recent Telltale games series, makes a return here. Max, obviously, doesn't take hearing the word again very well.
• Buffy Speak: It's Strong Bad. What did you expect?
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Artie Flopshark, deceased, who according to Max was beaten up for various perceived offenses including collecting money for a charity marathon, teaching the "nonexistent" variant Omaha, and winning a poker tournament in an attempt to pay off his mortgage. This may have something to do with the "Deceased."
  • If Max wins against you in 1v1 poker, he'll say it reminds him of the time Flopshark won against Flint Paper under similar circumstances. Paper apparently responded by killing Flopshark in cold blood.
  • "Artie Flopshark, Deceased" is the lowest rank player name the player can get, getting it once their balance is deep in the red.
• The Cameo: By series:
  • From Sam & Max: Freelance Police: Flint Paper, Bluster Blaster, Sam, Girl Stinky, Momma Bosco and a can of banang.
    • Some scenes from the comics can be seen on the wall behind Tycho.
  • Pom Pom appears in the opening cutscene, playing poker. You see him storming out of the Inventory, apparently frustrated at being eliminated. You take over his chair when playing Texas Hold'em.
  • Monty Muzzle is perusing books on the second level.
  • And of course, Winslow is the host.
    • Looks like Winslow, sounds like Winslow, but different clothing and only identified as "The Host." As there is no copyright notice for LucasArts in the game, you can interpret him as either a Captain Ersatz or a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo. In the intro of Poker Night 2 though, Winslow identifies himself by name.
  • Trixie Trotter from Back to the Future: The Game by Telltale is seen entering a secret room just as Winslow appears.
• Canon Welding: Heavy states that his favorite video game is Where's an Egg?, a fictional Russian game available on the Homestar Runner website, implying that Team Fortress 2 and Homestar Runner exist in the same universe.
• Character Tics: After the first patch of the game, the four characters will perform certain actions (either while betting or when the community cards are dealt) which can give away what kind of hand they have. Some (like Strong Bad slamming his head against the table or Tycho slapping himself) are obvious, while others (such as Heavy's flaring nostrils or Max's twitching hands) are a bit more subtle.
• Cloudcuckoolander: All of the characters to some extent, but Max's mind is definitely bobbing around higher up in the clouds than the others'.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Tycho has a penchant for these, which makes sense given where he comes from.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard:
  • Possible to invert this. Due to how Max picks up his cards when the cards are first dealt, and the dynamic camera angles during conversations, it is possible to accidentally sneak a peek at what he has.
    • Max keeps referring to his psychic powers from The Devil's Playhouse, and during showdowns he can be seen peeking into the future vision toy, which begs the question whether his AI can/does cheat or he's just psyching you out.
    • Based on Max's implied tentative grasp of the game, it's questionable how much looking into the future would even help him.
• The Computer Shall Taunt You: Should you or either of the four characters try to play with a bad hand and subsequently lose, there's a good chance that someone will question your/their poker skills.
  Max: Yeah, I'm not capable of prolonged lucid thought, but what's your excuse for playing cards like that?
  Strong Bad: Maybe you're, like, color AND number-blind. Or just blind? Or just...number?
  Heavy: You think you can win with these? This is like thinking tiny Scout can lift heavy weapon!
  Tycho: Oh, I see what you're doing. You've attended the "Jonathan Gabriel School of Playing Total Shit and then Seeing What Happens."
• Confusion Fu:
  • The game is sometimes easier on Hard, because the characters are, on a whole, more predictable. On Normal it's almost a crap shoot. Or.. er.. a randomly-chosen card game.
  • In keeping with his personality, Max's play style is extremely erratic, with little underlying logic behind his moves. He tends to be really good whenever he remembers that he's playing poker, though.
    Max: Next time, I'll rethink my strategy of "bet every time my belly button itches".
• Cool Shades: Dangeresque Too?'s shades can be obtained for the Demoman in Team Fortress 2.
• Covert Pervert: Max, at times. At one point Strong Bad asks him if there's a stack of Aces where he keeps his gun, to which Max replies "You're welcome to look" very happily. At another point he mentions how he was a very exuberant friskee: "I just thought they were being courteous."
• Defied Trope: Heavy defies several tropes associated with the Husky Russkie including alcoholism (he prefers peach bellini to vodka and admits he's susceptible to hangovers), a love for communism (his fee for assassinations is $500,000) and being Dumb Muscle (he has a Ph.D in Russian Literature). Heck, he even subverts the near universal love Russian characters have for Tetris.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The Automata Table is not only monochrome, it turns the rest of the game monochrome so long as it's active.
• Developer's Foresight: If you have a showdown with an opponent who has the same cards as you do, they'll comment about it.
  Max: (if they have a relatively good hand) Saboteur! You managed to cheat in the exact same way I did!
  Max: (if they have something like a pair of fives) Those are your cards, too? You're as insane as I am!
• Don't Explain the Joke: Tycho clarifying what The Heavy means by getting Strong Bad a "Hot Spy".
• Dramatic Irony: Strong Bad calls Penny Arcade a "crappy website for babies". Anyone who has actually read Penny Arcade knows that it's anything but kid-friendly. But then again, this is Strong Bad we're talking about here…
• Early-Bird Cameo: Trixie Trotter appears in the intro cutscene, roughly three months before her appearance in Back to the Future: The Game: Episode 2.
• Eskimos Aren't Real: Strong Bad tries to lord Homestar Runner's popularity over Penny Arcade's, while Tycho responds that PA gets millions of hits. Strong Bad doesn't buy it, thinking that "millions" is Tycho making numbers up.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • The Heavy's story about the Engineer. Given how the Heavy is telling this to three extreme sociopaths, their disgust means a lot.
    Strong Bad: That is some bleeped-up bleep, man!
  • Also used with Max and Tycho. Max has several different stories about Artie Flopshark getting repeatedly maimed/killed for doing things like teaching people how to play poker. Tycho points out that it's well...wrong to beat up someone for trying to raise money for charity or to keep his home from being foreclosed. But killing his best friend for a Pac-man watch? Totally a-ok!
  • Heavy's childhood story about burying a sparrow who was killed by another boy elicts sorrowful reactions from everyone at the table.
  • At the end of the trailer, The Heavy mentions that, upon being beaten three times, he'll be executed. The other threes' only response was to be absolutely horrified.
• Face Palm: both Max and Tycho have this among their Character Tics. Max's is, appropriately enough, rather more exaggerated.
• Feigning Intelligence:
  Strong Bad: Nothing intimidates your opponents like a heavy dose of think-hard! [squints his eyes and groans while Heavy watches, confused]
• For the Evulz: The Heavy questions Tycho about his "BLU sweater," thinking he's a new Team Fortress 2 class. Tycho goes along with it, clearly delighting in making him nervous by stating his hacking ability can ruin The Heavy's entire team.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Max (Sanguine), Strong Bad (Choleric), Heavy Weapons Guy (Melancholic), Tycho (Phlegmatic), The Player (Leukine)
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Some characters make it a huge deal when they fold hands they thought were good enough, and the camera allows to see the cards in some angles. The Heavy is the most obvious, lifting his hole cards and slamming them face first into the table, giving plenty of time for the player to see. On a real table this is rude at the very least, if not grounds for being expelled from the table outright.
• From the Latin "Intro Ducere": This exchange between Max and Tycho in Poker Night at the Inventory where Tycho explains to Max the etymology of the word "flop":
  Tycho: Do you know the etymology of the word "flop"?
  Max: Nope!
  Tycho: In the early 1600's, it was when the King would take a shit on a peasant. I fold.
• Funny Background Event: After being knocked out, the characters can be seen doing something in the background. Strong Bad goes to play an arcade game (Bluster Blaster, the sentient arcade machine from the Sam & Max games), the Heavy sits at a nearby table and watches the game, Tycho goes to the bar, and Max... aimlessly wonders around the Inventory, as he tends to do in the Sam & Max games. Sometimes you can catch him gnawing on the stair handrails; sometimes he'll return but only his ears will be poking above the table. If Max is knocked out after Strong Bad, he goes to join him at the Bluster Blaster machine.
  • If you win the game, the dramatic pans around the room reveal that Bluster Blaster has the "Insert Coin(s)" display even when Strong Bad is playing it.
• Go-Karting with Bowser:
  • While the Heavy isn't really a villain, playing poker is a lot more casual than his day job.
  • Really, all of the characters have committed murder, justified or not
• Graceful Loser: Max, Heavy and Tycho all compliment you for winning the tournament if they're the final opponent.
• Gretzky Has the Ball: Max doesn't even seem to know he's playing poker, let alone how to play it.
  "Congratulations! That was the hairiest game of Hearts I've ever played!"
  "Quick question: what do the numbers on the cards mean?"
• Hammerspace: Lampshaded by Tycho, who wants to know about Max's "pockets" (this doubles as a Mythology Gag since Sam famously asked Max the same).
• Has a Type: When Tycho describes his significant other as a redhead with glasses, Heavy gets really excited. "I like the red hair!" Heavy actually gets so happy about the red hair that Tycho has to protest, "You can't have her." Heavy then gets a really angry look on his face, to which Tycho squeals "...maybe we could work something out?"
• Headdesk: In the vein of his source material, Strong Bad sometimes does this if a bad card turns up during a one-on-one showdown with the player. Especially hilarious because he doesn't say a thing during it, he just has this look while he slams his head into his cards and chips. This gets more hilarious if the game decides to start his headdesk animation and a conversation started by him at the same time. Strong Bad will continually hit his head against the desk while talking in his normal tone of voice as if nothing is wrong.
• Hidden Depths: The Heavy is full of these. Turns out he can be pretty remorseful about his job when he's not shockingly sadistic, and he's got a pretty good handle on Russian literature. Also, he enjoys a good peach bellini. See Smarter Than You Look.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • Strong Bad, as can be expected. Notable examples include making fun of Penny Arcade's site traffic while pimping off his own, despite Homestarrunner.com having gone years without an update, as well as his constant lack—- uhhh, stream of ladies.
  • All of the characters, particularly Max and Strong Bad, will mock you for being a wuss if you check, and then immediately proceed to check as well.
    Tycho: "You should know, I've got your ass kicked pre-emptively." (player raises) "...yeah, I'll fold."
  • Max occasionally complains when Tycho uses the word "ostentatious" yet uses the word himself occasionally when he wins.
• Idle Animation: As of a recent update, everyone will occasionally show an animation that they have a bad hand, like a Face Palm, a concerned look, or a repeated Head Desk.
• Imagine Spot: One of the Heavy's losing a hand is him flipping the table and massacring the players. Immediately afterwards, he sternly asks for a new hand to be dealt.
• Immobile Player Character: Excluding the opening cut-scene, the Player sits completely still for the duration of the game.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: When Tycho is eliminated, he'll head to the bar and remain there for the rest of the tournament.
• In-Series Nickname:
  • The Heavy keeps referring to Strong Bad as "Tiny Heavy". His explanation does not amuse Strong Bad.
  • Max calls the Heavy "Mr. Weapons".
  • Strong Bad calls The Heavy "Heavym'n" or "Ivan" and Max "Bunnym'n."
  • Strong Bad calls Tycho "dork" and "nerd-rancher".
• Inn Between the Worlds: The Inventory, where video game characters hang out while nobody's playing their games.

• Laughably Evil: It's made abundantly clear that each of the four players are... well, psychopaths. But goddamn are they hilarious!
• The Magic Poker Equation: Averted, much like Poker in Real Life. You may find yourself holding a Ace and a King of the same suit quite regularly, but don't expect the flop to produce that straight flush.
• Manly Tears: When The Heavy loses Sasha in a bet. The character who wins it, aside from the player, will always state something hysterical about what they'll use it for.
  Tycho: I'll put this next to my chainsaw lancer replica.
  • Well, Max doesn't state any plans for it. He simply states "It's... It's...BEAUTIFUL!" more emphatically than when Heavy first pulls out his precious gun.
  • Strong Bad thinks it'll be a great way to keep The Cheat in line.
• Mascot Fighter: With poker instead of mortal combat, but the principle is the same.
• Medium Awareness:
  • The characters show varying levels, with Tycho and Strong Bad being aware of their status as game characters, while Heavy thinks his deaths and respawning are him having nightmares. Max's awareness seems to go in and out... in mid-sentence even.
  • Tycho's an interesting case, as he knows that the other characters are from games. He owns Team Fortress 2, and mentions to the Heavy how long the game's been out on Steam.
• Miscarriage of Justice: Max's anecdotes about Artie Flopshark's encounters with Flint Paper always result in the former getting ruthlessly beaten up by the latter, due to misunderstandings.
  Max: Did I tell you about the time Flint caught Artie Flopshark, the poker instructor, taking money from all the tenants in the building next door to our office?
  Strong Bad: No, but this Floppy Shark sounds like my type of dude.
  Max: Flint saw Artie going door to door telling some stupid story about having to run really far or a bunch of people were going to die. And people were just handing him stacks of cash!
  Tycho: That actually sounds like a charity thing.
  Max: Then why, pray tell, throughout his entire vicious pummelling, did Artie insist he needed 10K?
  Tycho: He didn't need 10K; he was running 10 k-lometers for charity!
  Max: Well, long story short, Flint broke both of his legs and beat him to within an inch of his life, so he wasn't running anywhere after that!
• Mythology Gag: Sometimes, upon losing badly on a hand, the Heavy may say, "I do not understand this… burning I feel." One of the Heavy's domination lines in Team Fortress 2 is, "The burning you feel? It is shame."
• Noodle Incident:
  • Tycho: "A pot like that could buy a little Giraffe time." The noodliness decreases when one considers Savannah Heat.
  • Another dialogue starts with Strong Bad making fun of the spikes in Tycho's hair, and somehow ends with the all-too-relevant Perverse Sexual Lust moment.
• Obligatory Swearing:
  • Tycho brings this with him to the table, though this'll be the first time the other three have appeared in any form of media with the word "fuck" uncensored. There's an option in the menu to turn bleeping of swears on and off. At least one Tycho swear is left bleeped even with the censors off.
  • Strong Bad does say "fucked-up shit" at one point, but it's bleeped out even if you have the censor turned off. Word of God says that the line Matt Chapman actually said was "bleeped-up bleep," which is exactly what the subtitles say (Tycho's swearing is always ***'d out, whether censors are on or off). invoked
• Oh, Crap!: The players are caught completely off guard if you raise unbelievably high.
• Old Save Bonus: The main selling point. Characters will ante up items for use in Team Fortress 2 if the player busts out the character who bet the item.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the Heavy regales his opponents with his story of his cruel vengeance against the BLU Engineer, words fail Max utterly, and he has this horrified expression like "Oh my Frith".
• Phrase Catcher: Heavy tells Max, "You crack me up, leetle bunny," as a reference to Sam's famous "You crack me up, little buddy."
• Playlist Soundtrack: In this game and its sequel, the soundtrack consists almost entirely off lounge jazz remixes of songs from the original series represented at the table, minus Penny Arcade.
• Precision F-Strike: Out of all the characters reacting to Heavy's story of brutally murdering an Engineer, Strong Bad (the guy whose first appearance was in a children's book) is the one to note that "That is some 'BLEEPED' up 'BLEEP', man!" It's censored no matter what, but still...
• Product Placement: Lampshaded and parodied when Strong Bad will mention "HOMESTAR RUNNER DOT COM" then urge Max to plug "DOUBLE U DOUBLE U DOUBLE U DOT TELL TALE GAMES DOT COM SLASH STORE."
• Psychotic Smirk: Tycho, especially when he loses a hand.
• Real Men Wear Pink: Strong Bad, Tycho, and the Heavy have a discussion about favorite drinks. Strong Bad makes fun of Tycho for liking gin fizzes, and the Heavy turns out to like peach bellinis.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Tycho's eyes glow red a bit when delivering this line in the trailer.
  "Face down in front of me, is the card beast of your worst poker nightmares… just something to consider."
  • Occasionally, Tycho will get the same glowing red eyes and make an evil smile as a tell that he has an incredibly strong hand.
• Retraux: The Homestar Runner card deck features pixelated sprites, and the matching Videlectrix table causes Strong Bad to take on a low-poly appearance akin to an early 3D game from the '90s.
• Russian Humor: The Heavy's "Engineer Story" is a failed attempt at this, it seems.
• Russian Reversal: In Soviet Russia, humor laughs at you.
• Serious Business:
  • One of Heavy's lines in the trailer implies there's something a bit grim waiting for him if he loses.
    "Beat me once? Shame on me. Beat me twice? Also shame on me. Beat me THREE TIMES? I am sent to my death."
    (Max silently gasps in horror, Strong Bad clasps his hands and bows his head, and Tycho slumps over in his chair in pity.)
  • Strong Bad will ask The Heavy if he wants to "take care" of the King of Town. The Heavy assumes he means kill, but Strong Bad just wants to shave half his mustache.
    • Strong Bad admits he wouldn't mind if the King of Town was killed, however.
• "Shaggy Frog" Story: When Tycho asks Max where he learned to play cards, Max starts recounting an adventure in Atlantic City, but by the time he finishes the anecdote he's forgotten there was a question he was supposed to answer.
• Shoot Him, He Has a Wallet!: If Tycho drops out first, he starts pulling something out of his pocket. The other three characters aim their weapons at him, only for Tycho to exclaim that it is a granola bar.
  Heavy: Oh. (puts weapon away)
  Max: Whoopsie. (throws weapon over shoulder)
  Strong Bad: Hand it over.
  (Tycho just gives Strong Bad a Death Glare and storms off to the bar to sulk)
• Shout-Out:
  • Tycho may reference Magic: The Gathering when he folds by comparing his bad hand to drawing too many Mana cards.
  • Strong Bad thinks Max is "one of them Pokeymans."
• Signed Up for the Dental: Heavy clearly enjoys his job, but he does enjoy the full dental. Though he and his RED squad had to unionize for group medical coverage. Guess Medic is stingy with his supplies.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: While most of the characters are jovial enough toward each other, with occasional bouts of conflict, Strong Bad and Tycho show fairly naked animosity toward each other. Mostly due to Strong Bad playing the part of Jerk Jock and Small Name, Big Ego while ragging on Tycho's "site for babies."
  Strong Bad: [mocking tone] Oh man, what happened?
  Tycho: You want me to say you won again?
  Strong Bad: I guess so. I mean if that's what happened for real and for true. Right?
  Tycho: Die a sad, pitiful, painful death.
• Slasher Smile: When you get into a one-on-one situation with Tycho and he has a decently good amount of money. His smile rivals Dr. Giggles.
• Smarter Than You Look:
  • The Heavy has multiple lines asking the characters about their respective educations. Tycho plays it off with a lame D&D joke, Max admits he never went to college, and Tiny Heavy... well. Not only that, but he also chats with Tycho about his favorite book (Tsar Hunger by Leonid Andreyev), because get this - he has a Ph.D. in Russian Literature. That's Dr. Heavy Weapons Guy to you!
  • Probably a reference to how the Russian version of "Meet the Heavy" made him sound much more sophisticated than the original, implying that he only sounds like a dumbbell because of his relatively poor English.
• Smug Snake: Tycho, so very much. Also, Strong Bad, to a lesser extent.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Tycho and Strong Bad will rarely miss an opportunity to throw shade at each other.
• Social Semi-Circle: The Player is the only person on one half of the poker table, facing the other four characters.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Tycho slips into this several times. Observe here.
• Sore Loser: Strong Bad does not take losing well and often complains about losing and calls the other players cheaters sometimes after being eliminated. He's also a sore winner.
• Soundtrack Dissonance
  Tycho: (to Heavy) What gets you in the killing mood? Ride of the Valkyries? Icelandic death metal?
  Heavy Weapons Guy: I just get new Huey Lewis tape. He keeps spirits up on battlefield.
  • Damn right he does.
• Squick:
  • In-universe. The others are perturbed any time Tycho talks about animals.
    Max: (shocked) Are you asking me if I ever schtupped Momma Bosco?!
  • Strong Bad's reaction to Tycho having masturbatory fantasies about hedgehogs: "Oh, nothing. Just puking in my pants..."
• Straight Man:
  • Tycho has the most down-to-earth personality and conservative playstyle of the four. Just don't get him talking about giraffes. Or hedgehogs. Probably best to keep him away from animals entirely. And it's a good thing he's sitting on the other side of the table from Max.
  • He doesn't exactly take losing all that well, either:
    Tycho: Son of a bitching lagomorph.
    Max: I don't even know how to play this game.
    Tycho: That's fucking rich. That's just great. (pauses) Is there a guy in there?
    Max: Huh?
    Tycho: Some kinda card-counter astrophysicist motherfucker? Am I close?
    Max: Why I never!
    Tycho: I've seen you around with that guy in the dog costume. DON'T YOU LIE TO ME.
• Suddenly Voiced: Tycho is voiced by Andrew Chaikin for this game, who was the voice actor for Max in Episode 1 of ''Sam and Max: Season 1".
• Stealth Insult: Strong Bad implies that the Heavy is very weak (weaker than he looks, at least), in this conversation:
  Heavy: He (enemy Engineer) tries to kill me with turret and mini-turret, but I crush his little toys like they are made of paper.
  Strong Bad: Sounds like some crappy toys if you ask me.
• Take That!:
  • There's a lot of potshots against all the characters' respective backgrounds by the others, both subtle and explicit.
  • Many, many, many, against Gamestop, government and so forth. Since a lot of the dialogue was "polished" by the original creators, it's usually entirely in-character, and references their backgrounds.
    Max: (asking after criminals he and Sam could fight) Oh, or if you know of a cabal of greedy corporate monsters, hell-bent on blanketing an entire generation in a deep, exploitative sadness, that would do.
    Tycho: Oh, so chains of used videogame resellers? Yeah, we got those.
  • Strong Bad doesn't think much of Penny Arcade or PAX, a call-back to his scathing parody of the series.
  • One conversation between Strong Bad and Max has them discuss how well, or poorly, Telltale Games do their characters justice. Max is satisfied, Strong Bad is not. As explained in Biting-the-Hand Humor, the Making Of... videos show how Strong Bad's expectations for his video game were... not met.
  • When Heavy asks Strong Bad if he'd like to join RED, Strong Bad responds with "I guess I could join your team of ruthless killers and lame hat-wearers and watch you get grenaded by eight-year-olds."
  • Strong Bad: "Your hair looks like a greasy hedgehog — unassociated with any video game license — that walked into a barber shop and said 'A little off the suck, please.'"
  • When Strong Bad asks Heavy about his favorite video game, Tycho interrupts his answer with World of Warcraft, and the Heavy responds, "Ehh, it is not popular." This Take That! was possibly made because how Blizzard got angry with Valve due to them trademarking Defense of the Ancients, which was orignally a Warcraft III map.
  • When Tycho asks Heavy about whether or not he receives any "good drops" from killing others, Heavy goes into a short, almost out of character speech on how killing others sometimes makes him feel bad, or gives him nightmares.^note This one actually makes sense, considering Heavy's backstory — he laments about killing men because he worries he's taking them away from their wives and children. The same thing happened to his father, who was killed fighting against the Red Army in 1941. Heavy, his mother, and his sisters were forced to work in a gulag as a result. He then quickly switches into another, wide eyed speech about hats, proclaiming they are the best.
• This Cannot Be!:
  • If the Heavy loses with a good hand, such as a three of a kind, with a big pot, he will scream "WHAT?! I will not lose to lucky coward! I kill you!", turn over the table, and spins up Sasha. The other characters are naturally shocked. Cue Smash Cut to him sitting down again (with the table back in place) with a Death Glare and say, "Deal new hand now."
  • Played with by Tycho if the Player is eliminated on a bad beat by another character, suggesting this reaction if Tycho was in the Player's place.
    Tycho: Man, if I were you, I'd be sweating hate. It'd froth from my mouth and nose. It'd be like that movie, "There Will Be Froth."
• This Is Gonna Suck: During Showdowns, if there's a hand that beats theirs, they start to look more and more desperate.
• Too Much Information:
  • Strong Bad reacts this way when the Heavy says that between learning to box and learning to herd goats, he chose boxing.
    Heavy: Strong and bad, how is boxing career?
    Strong Bad: THESE. ARE. MY. HANDS!
    Heavy: I was boxer once. In school. We have to either box or learn to herd goats. I am not good with goats.
    Strong Bad: (singing) Too much information, man. You're "Too Much Information Man."
    Heavy: At first, I do not like punching other boys. But then I learn to LOVE it.
  • Max's reaction to Tycho's speech on giraffes and in the same vein, Strong Bad's reaction to Tycho's speech about hedgehogs.
• Villainous Breakdown: Minor example: Tycho is noticeably deflated and depressed if he loses before the other players (he seems to consider you a Worthy Opponent if you beat him in the showdown), and he has the funniest Oh, Crap! faces.
• What the Hell, Player?: This happens a lot, hilariously so.
• What Would X Do?: Tycho sometimes asks himself "What would Gabe do" while pondering his next move. He then decides it's probably better to keep his pants on.
• Wicked Cultured: Heavy enjoys Russian Literature and a nice Peach Bellini. In between, he also tells inappropriate anecdotes about tearing off an Engineer's fingers and points spinning mini-guns over the poker table.
• Younger Than They Look:
  • If Tycho's word and Strong Bad's reaction is anything to go by, Strong Bad is probably ten, something around that. Makes sense, since homestarrunner.com only started in 2000.
    • Strong Bad is an odd case, really. In the Homestar Runner canon, he's in his 40's by now. However, if you do follow Tycho's logic, the original book that started it all came out 14 years ago, not 10.
  • Subverted by Max who mentions that he hopes the bartender won't ask him for identification. When Tycho questions if he's too young, Max simply replies that he's old enough, but finds the process of being carded embarrassing.
    • Like his partner, Max is allegedly pushing 40 as Sam and Max: Chariots of the Dogs suggests that he was born in the 1970s.

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